Roy Hodgson shows his England players the way it should be done at St George's Park. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images

Wayne Rooney is stood in attack gossiping with Gary Neville. Roy Hodgson is near the centre circle offering advice. Joe Hart is belting balls at the gym windows beyond the safety netting. And, on the touchline, England supporters watch as their idols conduct a training session opened up solely for their benefit.

On Monday around 150 fans – and the media – were treated to an insight rarely given at the top level of the game as Hodgson prepared his squad at Burton for the friendlies with the Republic of Ireland at Wembley on Wednesday and Brazil on Sunday at the Maracanã. To stand at a windy St George's Park for 90 minutes and witness how Hodgson instructed the country's elite players was a rare privilege and one appreciated by the England diehards.

After suffering the disappointment of last October's World Cup qualifier with Poland in Warsaw being washed out until the following day – causing many supporters to miss the game due to financial and time restraints – they were invited along by the Football Association to watch from close range how Rooney, Hart and company operate.

As the session unfolded from around 10.30am, the stretching of muscles and limbs was followed by Hodgson lining up two loosely numbered sides: Hart, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill, Ashley Cole, Jack Rodwell, Theo Walcott and Jermain Defoe competed against Ben Foster, Glen Johnson, Joleon Lescott, Phil Jones, Leighton Baines, Michael Carrick, James Milner, Frank Lampard, Rooney and Daniel Sturridge in a stop-start game of attack versus defence in which both sets of full-backs were told by Hodgson to remain in advanced positions down their flanks.

After Carrick opened up proceedings by scoring a blistering first, beating Hart at his near post, Hodgson's penchant for tracksuit management was witnessed as he paused the action to conduct capsule sessions with individual players.

These included Cole taking instruction on what appeared to be his movement when with or without the ball. To see a left-back with every club honour on his CV and who wins a 102nd cap on Wednesday still being coaxed into improving his game at the age of 32 was fascinating.

Rooney last completed a full game six weeks ago, his last goal in any colours came for England at the end of March, and it showed during a phase in which there was a badly scuffed shot, clumsily lost possession and a miscontrolled ball right in front of the fans, that caused a shake of the striker's head. But there was sharper work later when Rooney sprinted around his partner Sturridge to let fly with a left-footed effort that Hart saved well.

During this part of the session Hodgson asked the full-backs to switch sides and there was a further mixing of formations and positions so that Jones, for example, was asked to operate with a different central defensive partner, and then at right-back.

After 55 minutes Hodgson gathered the squad – Alex McCarthy, the third keeper was also present but Danny Welbeck and Kyle Walker were nursing knocks in the gym – in for a chat before the players resumed.

When Hodgson stopped again to make another point the session's relaxed air was illustrated by Rooney laughing and joking with Jagielka and Neville, his former Manchester United team-mate who is now one of Hodgson's coaches.

Seen like this they, and the rest of the squad, ceased to be the millionaires whose off-field personas have become closeted away due to the cult of the modern player, and they became what they actually are: a gang of young men who love, and are particularly good at, kicking a ball.

Later, the highlights included Lampard doing "a David Beckham" from near halfway to chip Foster, a 25-yard Rooney bullet repelled by Hart and the sight of the former United captain Neville humbly laying training cones out.

Then, at noon, the players wandered off. But not before they signed autographs, led by Rooney, who made a young girl's day by having his picture taken alongside her, while Hart kindly gave his gloves to another fan.

Here, then, is an idea: make at least one England training session during every camp open, and the same each week for all Premier League clubs, and see how the image of the game and its stars might change.